John Belski's Weather Blog

Largest hail in the country this year

Updated Tuesday at 10:15 PM...... A damaging hailstorm has been moving through Oklahoma City this evening. There have been many reports of tennis ball to softball size hail. 2 injuries have been reported so far.

The largest hail was at Piedmont, OK and was 5 inches in diameter. Softball size is considered 4.5 inches.

Up until this storm, the hail at Henryville on March 2 which was softball size was the largest in the country this year.

The April 28 hailstorm in Louisville now has damages over $200 million.

LIVE flooding updates Tuesday morning

I will be posting live updates all morning on my wave3.com blog   Click on refresh or check back for the latest.......

11:50   Water levels are starting to recede. If additional flooding develops this afternoon, I will have further updates in a new post.

11:40  I have watching the radar loop on this next batch of heavy rain for the early afternoon. If it continues on the same track, the heaviest rains in the area will be over the southern and eastern portions of Jefferson Co. and Bullitt Co.   If the storms build further north....something that is not happening yet.... then downtown and portions of southern Indiana will get some additional heavy rains.

11:35  Current power outages.....
Jefferson Co.  3400 homes
Southern Indiana  600

11:31  The NWS radar shows increasing downpours along the Dixie Hwy corridor.
A more widespread area of heavy rain will arrive over portions of the metro area during the early afternoon.

11:25   Here is a view of the flooding on the U of L campus this morning.

Afternoon classes are canceled.
A decision will be made by 3:00 about evening classes.

11:15  Rain totals as of 11:00
Louisville Int'l Airport  2.93"
Louisville Bowman Field  3.44"
Fort Knox  0.91"

11:10  Some downpours are now moving back into the Louisville area. One thing to watch is the large area of downpours about 75 miles to the southwestIf these hold together, portions of the area can expect additional heavy rains during the early afternoon hours.
These have been producing up to an inch an hour in the Madisonville area.

 

 

11:05  Ruggles Place Apartments had a lightning strike causing a fire this morning. About 12 units had damage. This is in the U of L area.

11:03  Current power outages.....
Jefferson Co.  3700 homes
Oldham Co. 200 homes
Southern Indiana 400 homes

11:00  U of L has now cancelled afternoon classes due to flooding

10:50  Cherokee Park is closed due to a number of the roads under water.

10:44  Here is a new flash flood warning for portions of Harrison Co.

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN LOUISVILLE HAS ISSUED A

* FLASH FLOOD WARNING FOR...
  SOUTHERN HARRISON COUNTY IN SOUTH CENTRAL INDIANA...

* UNTIL 130 PM EDT

* AT 1030 AM EDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR
  INDICATED A THUNDERSTORM PRODUCING HEAVY RAIN OVER MEADE
  COUNTY...MOVING NORTHEAST INTO SOUTHERN HARRISON COUNTY.

* LOCATIONS IMPACTED INCLUDE MAINLY RURAL AREAS OF SOUTHERN HARRISON
  COUNTY...INCLUDING TITUS...SUGAR GROVE...SEVEN SPRINGS...ROSEWOOD
  AND NEW MIDDLETOWN.

  FLASH FLOOD PRONE AREAS IN THIS WARNING...
  LAZY CREEK OVERFLOWS ONTO 7985 TANDY ROAD.
  MOSQUITO CREEK OVERFLOWS ONTO DAM 43 ROAD BRIDGE.

ADDITIONAL RAINFALL AMOUNTS OF 1 TO 2 INCHES ARE POSSIBLE IN THE
WARNED AREA

 

10:43  Here are some other rain totals.....
Highlands  3.67"
Sellersburg, IN  2.9"
Heavy downpours are building north again and it looks like some areas could pick up an additional inch by early afternoon

10:35  Current power outages.....
Jefferson Co.  5400 homes
Oldham Co.  400
Southern Indiana  400

10:33  Heavy downpours will be moving back into southwest Jefferson Co. shortly after 11:00.

10:13  Rain totals as of 10:00....
Louisville Int'l Airport (official)  2.91"
Louisville Bowman Field  3.36"
Fort Knox  0.14"

10:05  U of L classes are cancelled until 11:00.  One of the parking garages is surrounded by water. Also, several streets have high water. Over 3 inches of rain has fallen at U of L this morning.

10:03  The current radar shows the intensity of the rain has lessened in Jefferson Co. with still some downpours.
We are watching another area of downpours to the southwest. This is moving mainly toward the southern suburbs at this time.
There is a new2 downpour on the north edge of this over Breckinridge Co.... if this holds together, that could go back into the downtown area.

9:56  Current power outages....
Jefferson Co. 6100 homes
Oldham Co. 400 homes
Southern Indiana 700 homes

9:54  Radar estimates show over 5 inches of rain has fallen in Shively.....
over 4 inches in these areas: Churchill Downs, Louisville Zoo, downtown New Albany, IUS in New Albany

9:45  Water rescue in progress 9th and Magnolia
In St. Matthews there is a car flooded along Lexington Rd.

9:43  As of 9:00 the rain total at Bowman Field was 2.45"

9:42  Once the current area of heavy downpours moves out during the next hour, the next batch of heavier is moving more toward far southern Jefferson Co. and Bullitt Co.

9:41  As of 9:00 the official Louisville total at the airport was 1.78"

9:40  Lightning continues to cause outages. Also, there have been several fires from lightning.
Louisville power outages: 6200 homes
Oldham Co.  400
Southern Indiana  800

9:35  Radar estimates now showing over 5 inches of rain has fallen south of New Albany along Hwy 111.  I have not heard of any flooding problems in that area.

9:30  Water rescue in progress Hill St. underpass...
Bottom of Arthur St ramp at I-65 several cars surrounded by water.
13th St. in New Albany... earlier this morning water was almost waist deep

9:20  A new Flash Flood WARNING has been issued ....

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN LOUISVILLE HAS ISSUED A

* FLASH FLOOD WARNING FOR...
  EASTERN JEFFERSON COUNTY IN NORTH CENTRAL KENTUCKY...
  OLDHAM COUNTY IN NORTH CENTRAL KENTUCKY...

* UNTIL 1215 PM EDT

* AT 916 AM EDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED
  UP TO 3 INCHES OF RAINFALL FROM THUNDERSTORMS OVER THE WARNED AREA.

* LOCATIONS IMPACTED INCLUDE...LA GRANGE...ANCHORAGE...LYNDON...
  PROSPECT...

  IN ADDITION...RIVER BLUFF...PARK LAKE AND RUSSELL CORNER ARE
  INCLUDED IN THIS FLASH FLOOD WARNING.

  FLASH FLOOD PRONE AREAS IN THIS WARNING...
  LOW LYING AREA AT TAYLORSVILLE ROAD AND THE RAILROAD BRIDGE
  OVERFLOWS.
  HITE CREEK OVERFLOWS ONTO HIGHWAY 22.

ADDITIONAL RAINFALL AMOUNTS OF 1 TO 2 INCHES ARE POSSIBLE IN THE
WARNED AREA.

 

9:20  Radar estimates now showing over 4 inches of rain has fallen in the Shively area.

9:17  Current power outages....
Louisville 5500 homes
Southern Indiana 800 homes

9:15  Flash flood in progress.... south part of U of L along Central Avenue and also along Cane Run Road from Algonquin Parkway to Bells Lane.

9:10  There is a report of a water main break in New Albany near the Culbertson Crossing Apartments. Water is about a foot deep.

9:00   A flash flood warning is in effect for the next couple of hours for Louisville, Jeffersonville, CLarksville and New Albany.

The map shows the radar rain estimates.
Light green is one inch.
Yellow is 2.5 inches.
Some local 4 inch amounts have fallen along the river south of Chickasaw Park.

The heaviest MSD rain total is at the Shively station with just under 3 inches so far.

Power outages as of 8:00 AM

As of 8:00...2400 homes are without power in Jefferson Co.
Clark Co. 1300 homes
Floyd Co.  300

Over 2 inches of rain has fallen in Shively and almost 2 inches in Valley Station.

The thunderstorm areal coverage is increasing and some areas will pick up an additional 1 to 2 inches of rain this morning.

Some local flooding is possible.

Severe Thunderstorm update

Updated at 7:50 AM.... The Severe Thudnerstorm Warning has expired. The only reports in are some tree limbs down in Louisville and New Albany.
There was a fence blown over in Clarksville.
The largest hail size reported was pea size.

The storm moving right along the Watterson east of I-65 is just under severe levels.

Very heavy downpours will continue in the city past 8:00.

 

Spaghetti plot for Beryl

Updated Monday at 4:00 PM.... Beryl is now a tropical depression with winds of 35 mph.

Here is the spaghetti plot of the various model forecasts for the storm and most of them bring it back along the Carolina coast, but one model actually tries to take Beryl up into eastern Kentucky. That is not going to happen.

The storm has weakened inland but expected to intensify back up to 60 mph once it is well east of the U.S. coast.

Beryl is doing more good than bad because of the soaking rains in a drought area.
In Jacksonville....22,000 homes are without power.
350 trees are down and some roads are closed.

Thunderstorms are firing up north of Minneapolis this afternoon. This is a big deal because the Twin Cities has officially picked up 9.15 inches of rain so far this month with up to 12 inches in some suburbs and more rain is on the way.

For us, today is day 15 in a row with no rain in many areas.

Hottest in the country was in Tennessee

The core of the heat on Sunday was over northern Indiana and Illinois.
Rockford, IL was the heat capital with 99 degrees.
Chicago had an amazing 97 degrees. It was the earliest ever 97 degrees for Chicago. In 90% of the summers, it does not reach 97 in Chicago.
South Bend, IN reached 97 and Fort Wayne was 96. Much of northern Indiana has had their driest spring ever.

The HPC lists Smyrna, TN as the hottest in the country on Sunday with 100 degrees. I feel this may be suspect since this is just southeast of Nashville and they were only at 95 degrees.

Otherwise, Rockford was the hottest in the country.... and that very, very, rarely happens in that part of the country.

By the way, Arizona did not have any temperatures in the 90's on Sunday after having 100-110 degrees last week.

 

No rain for 14 days

The last general rain in the Louisville was on Mother's Day, 2 weeks ago. Since then there have been a few scattered storms but most areas have not had any rain.
I have seen some lawn sprinklers firing up as things are beginning to dry out.

A couple of rain chances in coming up this week. The first from Monday into early Tuesday with some scattered storms and a late week system with general shower activity.

The latest HPC 5 day rain outlook gives us over an inch with most of that from the late week system.

No record for the Indy 500

The high in Indianapolis today was 91 so the record hottest Indy 500 of 92 degrees remains the record.

In Louisville, the high was 93.... all of those upper 90's forecasts from the national media sites were wrong. The vegetation is too green to have highs in the upper 90's.

Largest fire in Michigan in 25 years

Updated Sunday afternoon..... There is a large forest fire in the upper peninsula of Michigan that has burned over 22,000 acres. This is the largest fire in Michigan in 25 years. The fire has burned 6 miles of shoreline of Lake Superior and the fire is 11 miles long.
About 50% of the fire is contained.
The fire was started last Wednesday by lightning. Rain and cooler weather in the forecast should help out in fighting the fire.

Watch LIVE pre-race coverage of the Indianapolis 500

The Indianapolis 500 goes to green flag at 12:15. Throughout the morning, you can watch local pre-race coverage from WTHR-TV in Indy......
click  HERE

There is a Heat Advisory for Indianapolis today for a heat index near 100. The forecast high is mid 90's. This will be the hottest Indy 500 ever. The previous record was 92 degrees.